Google joins the NFC Forum as Principal Member

Today Google has joined the NFC Forum as one of the principal members. This member list includes some top companies in the mobile world such as Motorola, AT&T, LG and others. Intel recently just raised their level to the same Principal Level that Google and the others are at. This comes right after Google partners with Mastercard and Citigroup for NFC payments.

The NFC Forum Mission: The Near Field Communication Forum was formed to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, and educating the market about NFC technology. Formed in 2004, the Forum now has 140 members. Manufacturers, applications developers, financial services institutions, and more all work together to promote the use of NFC technology in consumer electronics, mobile devices, and PCs.

We are still not sure yet what it means for Google themselves to actually be a principal member, but we think it will be a big one. At least we know they are going full force with this and developers can feel like the work they do will get rewarded as more devices get NFC. While we are knee deep in the NFC talk. Check out this awesome application developed by some smart guys over at the XDA Forums, it's a NFC Task Launcher that does much more than just open a URL and map the location, or call a number. This NFC Task Launcher does much more than that. For instance, touching the phone to the tag on the dashboard tells the handset to enable Bluetooth, disable Wi-Fi, set the media volume to maximum and launch the Car Home app. That is the exciting stuff the launcher can do. Get NFC Task Launcher in the Android Market.